Imagine when admissions folks, eyes glazed over by the piles of submissions from over-achieving applicants, read about a smart, promising, politically engaged kid getting vilified for exercising his First Amendment rights. By the American Legion, no less -- an organization that in its very mission statement pledges to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. Unless you offend a few members, that is.

``They served him a topic on a silver platter,'' his mom, Sabrina, told me Wednesday.

Between Lutz's stellar grades and the delightful irony of his story -- peeved by his comments on a matter of public interest, the Legion post tried to bar him from a program that teaches kids about democracy -- he ought to be a shoo-in anywhere. (He's aiming for Harvard.)

Two weeks ago, the local Legion post rejected Lutz's application for the Boys State program, a weeklong mock government seminar for Connecticut high school juniors. The Legion members voted not to accept Lutz because of what they perceived as personal attacks against RHAM Board of Education members. It took a few days, but the state American Legion organization overruled their decision, and accepted Lutz. His school is kicking in the $215 to get him there.

The first friction between Lutz and the Legion came in December, when the 17-year-old had the nerve to stand up at a public hearing and complain that some new board members seemed to believe that average achievement is good enough for the district.

Lutz was articulate, polite and amusing -- which isn't something you usually get at these meetings. People laughed when he asked, ``Would you want to drive a car designed by an average engineer? Would you want to fly in an airplane with an average pilot or be operated on by an average doctor?''

Ron Winter, a Legionnaire who served as a public relations manager during the board members' campaign, went after him. He called the statement a lie, and turned on Lutz: ``You want civics? You're gonna get civics, kid.''

Now there's a lesson in reasoned public discourse.

Winter insists the decision to reject Lutz had nothing to do with that meeting. It was the disrespect that the 17-year-old showed at a meeting in April, where he criticized a board subcommittee that -- no surprise here -- includes two members with connections with the Legion. Lutz said he didn't think the subcommittee members were qualified to recommend elimination of the RHAM technology director's job.

Post Commander Dan Arnini was outraged: ``What credentials does a 17-year-old have to question the credentials of two adults?''

He might ask: Where does Winter get off bullying and belittling a speaker at a public hearing? Or how does an organization of veterans, founded to promote democratic principals, justify punishing a person for exercising the rights so many of its members fought for?